It’s time to acknowledge the first two teams to have clinched a playoff spot in the NFL.  The Green Bay Packers (12-0) will be defending their Super Bowl championship this season.  And the San Francisco 49ers (10-2) have clinched a playoff spot and their division for the first time since 2002.  That was the Steve Mariucci and Jeff Garcia days.  Both teams are starting to bring back memories of those Brett Favre-Steve Young days of the late 90s. They haven’t played each other yet this season, but I am anticipating that they will meet.  Either way you can rest assure that the NFL scheduling czars will put Green Bay and San Francisco against one another next season.  Congratulations to both teams.  I look forward to the NFC playoff brackets to be the best this season.

I tweet quite a bit when there is football on TV.  I was almost speechless during the Sunday night game as the Detroit Lions were basically falling apart at the seams.  They committed 11 penalties for 107 yards.  My tweet to this was, “11 penalties for the Lions. are they trying to be the Oakland Raiders of the NFC?” It was a valid point.  What has happened to this team?  It was their first game without the suspended DT Ndamukong Suh.  Some folks thought that Suh was the only problem.  Not the case.  It starts with the head coach Jim Schwartz.  He has done a great job to turn around the culture in that organization.  However, he has done a terrible job in reeling in his players.  The Lions attitude is a reflection upon their head coach.  Now I don’t expect that to happen again, but make no mistake that the Lions are losing some scoring opportunities thanks in part to their stupid penalties.